SANTA CRUZ -- London may have werewolves, but Santa Cruz now has mountain lions.

A wayward cat enthralled the city Thursday when it ambled from the mountains and was spotted around daybreak near one of the busiest intersections in town. Several hours after leaping a fence and into an aqueduct 25 feet below, the lion was tranquilized and rescued without further trouble.

"This actually was the ideal scenario in terms of how to end the incident," Santa Cruz Deputy Chief Steve Clark said. "We're very fortunate that the animal bedded down here in ... Branciforte Creek. This gave us a lot of options and strategies to approach the animal and safely get it out of the populated area and return it to its habitat."

The mountain lion, a young male who was not previously tracked by local researchers, was first spotted in the parking lot of a Ramada Inn on Water Street near Ocean Street. He was tracked through the parking lot of a busy medical complex before leaping into the concrete canyon that carries Branciforte Creek to the San Lorenzo River.

"I was like, 'Whoa, wait a minute. A mountain lion over here?'" said Bhavesh Patel, proprietor of the Ramada Inn, who was working when a guest first reported the cat. "I was pretty amazed to see it. How did it get here? Did it come by the river or something?"

Patel said the lion seemed scared more than anything, fleeing when a police car showed up. After jumping into the aqueduct and settling below a May Avenue dead-end, it spent most of the morning crouched in shrubs, hidden to all but the keenest eyes.

CAT TALES

News of the cat quickly spread through the city, via both word of mouth and social media. Curious onlookers gathered, while people seemed to take the visitor in stride.

"There's always a lot of excitement in this creek," said Ronne Marino, whose deck overlooks the aqueduct, adding that everything from foxes to crooks pass through it. "This is Santa Cruz. There is wildlife here. I'm not surprised there would be a mountain lion."

Santa Cruzan Dave Tolchinksy came to the medical complex, at 550 Water St., for an 8 a.m. dentist appointment and ended up staying through lunch, watching the spectacle unfold.

"I wasn't that concerned. I've known there's lions in the area. The fact that it's down in the canal is reassuring," Tolchinsky said. "(Police) seem to be doing what's best for the welfare of the public and the cat."

The fate of the mountain lion, including its release back into the wild, was overseen by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It may be the first lion captured under new nonlethal policies, announced by the agency March 1 after the killing of two cubs found in Half Moon Bay brought a storm of criticism.

"Just because you see an animal acting normal, but it's in an unusual area, doesn't mean it's a public safety issue," Fish and Wildlife Lt. Kevin Joe said.

Mountain lion attacks on humans are extremely rare, particularly fatal attacks. During the past 40 years, however, 2,500 mountain lions have been killed under state permits.

One of those was "Atlas," a remarkable lion whose vast territory straddled Highway 17, including the city of Santa Cruz. Researchers believe he was shot around Thanksgiving for eating domestic animals. It's possible Thursday's lion was exploring newly opened territory, though one neighbor thought he heard feral pigs in the aqueduct overnight.

"When it comes down to it," said Angus McMahan, who lives next to the aqueduct, "it all comes down to a quest for bacon."

Mountain lions don't typically eat pigs, however. And the lion -- at 90 pounds and less than 2 years old -- appears to be a juvenile not yet old enough or big enough to command significant territory.

NONLETHAL FORCE

For mountain lions, wandering onto farms or into urban areas is often fatal. State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has a bill requiring the Department of Fish and Wildlife to use nonlethal force in removing the animals when there is no imminent threat to public safety.

"What transpired today seems like they're utilizing (the new policies) and they're successful and they're working," Hill said, adding that he will pursue his bill to put those policies into law.

When police first encountered the lion, it leaped several times in an attempt to get out of the aqueduct. It was unsuccessful, but the jumps were impressive enough that police joked the Santa Cruz Warriors should consider offering it a contract.

Police first hoped simply to shoo the lion back into the wild by driving all-terrain vehicles up the aqueduct. Staff from Moss Landing-based Wildlife Emergency Services rappelled into the canyon and set up a net to keep the lion from moving under Ocean Street and toward Pacific Avenue.

With researchers from UCSC's Puma Project on site, officials later decided to anesthetize the lion. The well-respected group has drugged and tagged dozens of lions throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains, and USCS professor Chris Wilmers handled the trigger.

"We all thought we could safely anesthetize the animal, and that it would not go running off into the urban neighborhood," Wilmers said.

He noted the lion would have to flee about a mile after being hit to get out of the aqueduct, which was highly unlikely.

From the beginning, Santa Cruz police were looking for a nonlethal resolution.

"We didn't want to have to take any drastic measures and have to euthanize the animal," Clark said. "We were pretty comfortable with where it was at. We were pretty comfortable with the public safety component of this."

After the first shot, the lion staggered a few yards and hunkered down again. Officials determined that a second shot was needed, and after a third was delivered by hand -- a sign of how agitated the lion had become -- it was lifted into a crate and removed from the aqueduct before undergoing a medical examination.

It was released back into the wild Thursday afternoon. For the Puma Project, the lion will be the 39th tracked by researchers.

Asked how his ATV officers responded when told that their job would involve herding a mountain lion through a confined space, Clark laughed.

"You don't get entertainment like this working in a bank, that's for sure," he said.